University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications
Title
Probing the enigma: unraveling glial cell biology in invertebrates
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Neurobiology; Freeman Lab
Publication Date
2013-12
Document Type
Article
Subjects
Animals; Invertebrates; Neurogenesis; Neuroglia
Disciplines
Cell Biology | Developmental Biology | Developmental Neuroscience | Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience | Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Abstract
Despite their predominance in the nervous system, the precise ways in which glial cells develop and contribute to overall neural function remain poorly defined in any organism. Investigations in simple model organisms have identified remarkable morphological, molecular, and functional similarities between invertebrate and vertebrate glial subtypes. Invertebrates like Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans offer an abundance of tools for in vivo genetic manipulation of single cells or whole populations of glia, ease of access to neural tissues throughout development, and the opportunity for forward genetic analysis of fundamental aspects of glial cell biology. These features suggest that invertebrate model systems have high potential for vastly improving the understanding of glial biology. This review highlights recent work in Drosophila and other invertebrates that reveal new insights into basic mechanisms involved in glial development.
DOI of Published Version
10.1016/j.conb.2013.07.002
Source
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2013 Dec;23(6):1073-9. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2013.07.002. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Current opinion in neurobiology
PubMed ID
23896311
Repository Citation
Coutinho-Budd, Jaeda and Freeman, Marc R., "Probing the enigma: unraveling glial cell biology in invertebrates" (2013). University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications. 454.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/454